ITC Franklin Gothic™ font family

Morris Fuller Benton designed Franklin Gothic for the American Type Founders Company in 1903-1912.

Just as early types without serifs were known by the misnomer grotesque" in Britain, and "grotesk" in Germany, they came to be described as "gothic" in America. There were already many "gothic" typefaces in North America by the early 1900s, but Benton's design was probably influenced by popular "grotesks" from Germany, like Basic Commercial, or D. Stempel AG's Reform. Franklin Gothic may have been named for Benjamin Franklin; however, the design has no historical relationship to that famous early American printer and statesman. Benton was a prolific designer, and he designed several other sans serif fonts, including Alternate Gothic, Lightline Gothic and News Gothic. In fact, News Gothic and Lightline Gothic could be seen as lighter "versions" of Franklin Gothic, and may be used together in the right design.

ITC Franklin Gothic is a large set of fonts based on Benton's work, with two skilled artisans behind the revival and expansion. In 1980, Victor Caruso re-drew the original Franklin Gothic and designed several more weights, and in 1991, David Berlow added several condensed and compressed weights. With dozens of weights and styles, this perennial favorite is ready for duty in any situation from tight corners on printed documents to powerhouse arenas on websites.

Recognizable aspects of Franklin Gothic include the two-story "a" and "g," subtle stroke contrast, and the thinning of round strokes as they merge into stems. The type appears dark and monotone overall, giving it a robustly modern look. Franklin Gothic is still one of the most widely used sans serifs; it's a suitable choice for newspapers, advertising and posters.

Another family with a similarly useful design is Trade Gothicand the new released ITC Franklin from David Berlow.."

Fractions

Tag: frac

Function: Replaces figures separated by a slash with 'common' (diagonal) fractions. The user enters 3/4 in a recipe and gets the threequarters fraction.

Standard Ligatures

Tag: liga

Function: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph which is preferred for typographic purposes. This feature covers the ligatures which the designer/manufacturer judges should be used in normal conditions. The glyph for ffl replaces the sequence of glyphs f f l.

Ordinals

Tag: ordn

Function: Replaces default alphabetic glyphs with the corresponding ordinal forms for use after figures. One exception to the follows-a-figure rule is the numero character (U+2116), which is actually a ligature substitution, but is best accessed through this feature. The user applies this feature to turn 2.o into 2.o (abbreviation for secundo).

Superscript

Tag: sups

Function: Replaces lining or oldstyle figures with superior figures (primarily for footnote indication), and replaces lowercase letters with superior letters (primarily for abbreviated French titles). The application can use this feature to automatically access the superior figures (more legible than scaled figures) for footnotes, or the user can apply it to Mssr to get the classic form.

These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in d

Tag: Basic Latin

Function: These fonts support the Basic Latin character set. Each font is Unicode™ encoded, and available in different formats. Please review the product information for each font to ensure it will meet your requirements.

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ITC Franklin Gothic™ Std Mediumis also contained in the following products

ITC Franklin Gothic 1 Volume

ITC Franklin Gothic Complete Family Pack

ITC Library

Other families by the same designer

ITC Clearface®

ITC Kabel®

ITC Korinna®

ITC Bauhaus®

ITC Korinna®

ITC Korinna®

ITC Franklin Gothic is a trademark of Monotype ITC Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.